Lars Ulrich Names His Two Favorite Metallica Album Covers

What's your favorite Metallica album cover? The powerful, symbolic and enduring art that represents Master of Puppets? How about what came next, the equally compelling ...And Justice for All? Maybe even Ride the Lightning for its slightly campy feel that embodied the grittiest of true heavy metal at the time? You'll be surprised to learn that none of those were named as Lars Ulrich's two favorites.

"I'm not much for favorites," the drummer told Maxim when asked what his favorite Metallica album cover is. "The Load and Reload albums with the amazing pieces by Andres Serrano. They will always hold a special place in my heart," he went on, adding, "I love him as an artist. I love the imagery. I love the fact that we saw Serrano through as the cover art for those two records. Those are probably my two favorites."

Metallica famously used two of Serrano's unorthodox artwork for the two records, one titled "Blood and Semen III" (Load) and "Piss and Blood XXVI" (Reload).

Elektra

Elektra

When discussing his favorite Metallica t-shirt designs, Ulrich couldn't name one favorite, but instead praised the artist Pushead, with whom they worked with extensively in the past. "A lot of the ones that [Pushead] did for us in the late '80s and early '90s, I think, are iconic. The way that he interpreted the songs, the lyrics, and then drew these incredible images," he commented.

"Most of them were based around what we'd call the 'Damage.' Like the Pushead skull that he introduced in 1986. There was something very iconic about all that, and I think probably looking at all the t-shirts that we've done, those are the ones that still stand out to me when I look at all the different things we've done for the last 30-plus years," Ulrich finished up.

Metallica's "WorldWired" tour continues with another North American leg starting Jan. 18. See the list of stops below and see how we ranked every Metallica song below that.